60 years of the SDC

The end of the Second World War marked the beginning of Switzerland's international cooperation. Between 1944 and 1948, the Swiss Confederation collected money for poor people in southern and western Europe to tackle hunger, disease and homelessness through an extensive campaign known as the 'Swiss donation'. As well as delivering aid supplies, Switzerland also worked closely with internationally active organisations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and United Nations (UN) organisations. By 1948, CHF 203 million had been raised for people in poverty.

The Federal Council wished to take account of the growing importance of technical assistance in international relations. On 8 January 1960, a federal office was created within the Federal Political Department (now the FDFA) called the Service for Technical Assistance, marking the beginning of the expansion of Swiss development efforts.

The Interdenominational Conference between Switzerland and the Third World in November 1970 paved the way for a broad political and public debate on Switzerland's role in the world. The aim of the conference was to develop a strategic framework for Swiss development cooperation. Previous development theories and their benefits were called into question.

In a bid to maximise the chances of success for Switzerland's development cooperation, the Directorate of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid embarked on a process of decentralisation from 1980 onwards, giving its regional offices an enhanced role. This made administrative processes faster. The local offices were assigned more responsibility in planning and implementing programmes and projects, which led to greater efficiency.

Switzerland was one of the first countries to provide support in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Initially, most of the assistance was delivered by private organisations, although communes and cantons also contributed. Initiatives ranged from the collection of clothes and town/city twinning partnerships to the building of nurseries and schools.

In the wake of the events of 11 September 2001, the SDC analysed the implications of the terrorist attacks for Switzerland's development cooperation. It concluded that poverty reduction, good governance and partnerships were key building blocks for crisis prevention and sustainable development and thus an important prerequisite for reducing violence and terrorism.

Millions of people in Arab countries took to the streets in 2011 demanding more democracy, justice and economic opportunities. But for countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and other fragile or conflict-affected countries, charting a new political, economic and social course proved challenging.

In March 2011, the Federal Council decided to expand Switzerland's commitment in North Africa in the medium term. The support involved stepping up activities in the areas of democratic transition, economic development, job creation, migration and protection for those in need.

Since the end of the Second World War, people in Africa and Asia had been struggling to end colonial rule by Western countries. In 1960 alone, 17 states gained their independence and entered the international arena as independent political players. However, people's hopes for a better standard of living were repeatedly dashed in the following years, which over time led to regional conflicts. These new states also became pawns in a game between East and West to establish power and influence over them.

The milk project in Kars, Turkey, was left to run independently in 1970. The same happened with other first-generation projects, as in Peru, where two livestock farming projects, complete with cheese dairy, were handed over to the local partners in 1971. In 1975, the last Swiss expert involved with the carpet weaving project in Nepal was able to return home. Launched in 1963, this project developed into a full-scale industry for the Himalayan country, employing around 8,600 people.

During the 1970s, environmental protection became a central domestic policy issue in Switzerland. Nuclear power, forest dieback and the destruction of the rainforest and other natural habitats were major talking points. In response, the Directorate of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid forged a new approach whereby all new projects incorporated protection of the environment, in all its dimensions, into the planning process. Later, the same was done with gender equality and good governance.

Switzerland has been active in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars in 1991. During the conflict, Swiss Humanitarian Aid provided traditional emergency relief, and around 30,000 people were granted temporary asylum in Switzerland. Following the end of hostilities in 1995, Switzerland concentrated its activities on transition cooperation and the development of new democratic state structures and a social economy.

On 26 December 2004, a massive tsunami in the Bay of Bengal claimed more than 225,000 lives and left millions of people homeless. Swiss Humanitarian Aid provided emergency relief and assisted with the reconstruction.

The infrastructure that Swiss Humanitarian Aid rebuilt in South Asia – homes, schools and drinking water treatment plants – enabled those affected to begin a new life after the disaster. In the years that followed, tens of thousands of people in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand had most of their basic needs met thanks to the contributions of the SDC and its partners.

In its 2011 spring session, the Swiss Parliament decided to raise official development assistance to 0.5% of gross national income by 2015. This led the SDC and SECO to significantly step up their efforts on climate and water issues in response to global challenges.

The renaming of the 'Service for Technical Assistance' as the 'Service for Technical Cooperation' by the Federal Council on 5 April 1961 marked the birth of modern Swiss development cooperation. Over the following years, the focus was on establishing and expanding bilateral assistance. The share of the budget earmarked for bilateral development cooperation was raised from 20% to 60% from 1962.

With the completion of the first-generation projects, the Service for Technical Cooperation began to evaluate its projects in more detail. It concluded that the projects were often too short and that the needs and training of the local population had to be better incorporated into the project planning. The project goals should also be more clearly defined, with more issues clarified prior to the start of a project. In addition, the service recognised that multiple international cooperation instruments needed to be used simultaneously in project implementation, something that was to become standard practice.

While Switzerland's humanitarian aid largely escaped criticism, shortcomings were nonetheless identified again and again during aid missions. For example, while the Swiss Disaster Relief Unit had the resources to locate the injured and dead under rubble following an earthquake, it was unable to rescue or recover them because the equipment needed could not be transported to the scene in time. Swiss Rescue was founded in 1980 in partnership with the Swiss Armed Forces, Swiss Air-Rescue and the Swiss Search and Rescue Dog Association, thus combining all the elements required for a successful rescue operation: location, rescue, emergency medicine and logistics. Swiss Rescue was deployed in December 1982 following an earthquake in Yemen.

In 1992, the Swiss Parliament approved a credit of CHF 800 million for cooperation with Eastern Europe. This enabled Switzerland to expand its development cooperation activities to include the Baltic states and South-Eastern Europe. A further CHF 600 million was freed up a year later against the backdrop of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the flare-up of conflict in the Balkans.

The Syrian conflict, which has been ongoing since 2011, has caused one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time. The civilian population and millions of displaced people continue to suffer from the appalling effects of armed conflict as well as serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights.

Switzerland has responded actively to the humanitarian needs of people inside Syria and those who have fled the country. It is working in the areas of protection and migration, education and income, conflict prevention and peacebuilding, and water and sanitation. It also provides emergency assistance in cases of acute humanitarian crisis in the region. In this way, Switzerland is helping to mitigate the impact of the Syrian crisis on the ground.

On 29 May 1964, the Federal Council defined the criteria for the selection of priority countries. The countries should be small to enhance the effectiveness of Swiss support and raise the profile of Switzerland's efforts. There also had to be pre-existing relations between the country and Switzerland, in order to facilitate development cooperation.

The Service for Technical Cooperation continued to expand throughout the 1970s, allowing Switzerland to respond to international trends in development cooperation. In 1972, the Swiss Parliament approved a three-year credit of CHF 275 million, but by 1978 this had risen to CHF 735 million. These resources enabled the Service for Technical Cooperation to better align its project work with other international actors and to strengthen local coordination. After the first successful pilot project in India, the number of coordination offices increased to 12 by 1978 and to 19 by 1986.

To streamline its work and align it with a clear set of principles, the Directorate of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid developed a new instrument called country programmes. Based on an analysis of problems and an appraisal of the current situation, country programmes provide development cooperation actors in a country with a comprehensive overview and enable them to better coordinate the forms of aid deployed – from technical cooperation and financial assistance through to humanitarian aid. The first country programme was implemented for Bangladesh in 1983. Today, country programmes remain a key tool for planning and implementing development strategies in individual countries and regions.

Recognising that the democratic transition of the post-Soviet states was going to take a long time, the Federal Council set a number of objectives for Switzerland's cooperation with Eastern Europe:

• Promote and strengthen the rule of law and human rights.
• Build and consolidate democratic institutions.
• Foster sustainable and economic development.

Setting up small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries has become an increasingly important component of Swiss development cooperation. This is reflected in the SDC's support for SEAF (Small Enterprise Assistance Funds), which provides SMEs in emerging and transition markets with growth capital. A 2007 study by SEAF highlighted the effectiveness of this method:

Every dollar invested in SMEs generates, on average, an additional 12 dollars in the local economy. Employment in the supported SMEs has grown by 25% per year, with 72% of these new jobs going to unskilled or semi-skilled employees. Annual real wage growth during the investment period is 26%.

The Dispatch on International Cooperation 2013–16 saw Switzerland place strategic focus on engagement in fragile countries and conflict areas, as well as on management of global risks such as water scarcity and cooperation with the private sector.

Political instability, a lack of legal certainty and poor governance characterise many of Switzerland's fragile partner countries. With almost 50% of the world's population who live below the poverty line living in a fragile context, the SDC is stepping up its involvement in unstable regions such as the Hindu Kush, the Horn of Africa and Central Asia.

As well as India, Turkey and Tunisia, the first countries where technical cooperation was implemented included Peru, Nepal and Rwanda. The issues addressed by Swiss development cooperation became broader. In Nepal, Switzerland supported a buffalo farming programme as well as helping to build suspension bridges. In Rwanda, technical cooperation focused on the 'Travail, Fidélité, Progrès' trading cooperative, which improved the local population's living conditions through the purchase of coffee at fair prices. Peru became a key partner country for Switzerland in the 1960s. Here, Swiss development cooperation placed the emphasis on livestock farming and forestry. From Asia across the Middle East to South America, it was the dairy industry that took centre stage, with cheese dairies being set up throughout these regions.

Until the mid-1980s, the selection of priority countries for Swiss development cooperation was a complex and often arbitrary process. In line with Parliament's wish for more predictability and transparency, the Federal Council defined the following four selection criteria:
1. Poor countries have priority.
2. State policies must respect human rights and economic and social development.
3. Swiss support should build on the recipient country's efforts to help itself.
4. Useful cooperation with partners in the developing country must be possible.

The 2008 economic crisis had a massive impact on developing countries. Demand for export goods and raw materials plummeted, as did remittances from migrant workers to their families – both vital sources of income for people in developing countries. To mitigate the effects of the crisis, Switzerland stepped up its efforts to improve the economic environment, strengthen the financial sectors and make it easier for SMEs in developing countries to access financing.

Ongoing since 2014, the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed many lives and destroyed infrastructure. There is also a growing shortage of essential goods such as water. When the conflict halted the supply of chemicals for drinking water treatment, the resulting deterioration in water quality led to a sharp increase in cases of hepatitis A in the region.

In response to a request for assistance, Swiss Humanitarian Aid organised several humanitarian convoys in 2015. These transported the necessary chemicals as well as medical supplies and medicines for hospitals in the region. The Swiss aid reached 3 million people on both sides of the contact line.

Large economic and social differences between countries harbour a considerable potential for conflict and must therefore be reduced.

The desire for peace was great after the turmoil of war. The idea that peace can only be permanently maintained through international networking and cooperation was central to this. The United Nations Organisation (UNO), which was founded in 1945, fulfilled this conviction.

The Service for Technical Cooperation professionalised development cooperation during the 1960s. A key element was strengthening Switzerland's presence on the ground by setting up offices abroad for the service. The first was established in India. The development cooperation workload of the Swiss embassy in India had reached the limits of its capacity. In response, the first technical cooperation coordinator's office was created there in 1968 and entrusted with the planning and implementation of local projects.

In the early 1970s, development cooperation for the poorest became the focus of the Service for Technical Cooperation's work. This inspired it to develop new types of project, including projects aimed specifically at women, refugees and smallholders. In Ahmednagar, India, for example, the service helped to subsidise loans for women smallholders, giving them access to funds and allowing them to earn a modest living.

Switzerland responded quickly to the political upheavals that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. In November 1989, the Federal Council stated in a dispatch: "Switzerland has a direct interest in a controlled process of change in Eastern Europe that does not endanger international stability." This laid the foundation for Switzerland's international cooperation in Eastern Europe. The Confederation focused initially on food security, with immediate measures in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

To reflect its work in Eastern Europe, the Directorate of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DEH) changed its name to the Directorate of Development and Technical Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid for Central and Eastern Europe (DEHZO). This cumbersome title was shortened in 1996 to the current name, whose English version is the 'Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation' (SDC).

In December 2008, Parliament adopted the dispatch on the continuation of technical cooperation and financial assistance for developing countries and the dispatch on economic and trade policy measures for developing countries. This gave the Confederation its first-ever cross-departmental strategy on development cooperation. The aim was to maximise the impact of the funds deployed and avoid duplication by focusing the activities both geographically and thematically.

The Dispatch on Switzerland's International Cooperation 2017–20 set new priorities, focusing more on international cooperation in fragile contexts and raising the profile of these activities. To address the complex challenges posed by fragile contexts, Switzerland would increasingly link its international cooperation with peacebuilding and from now on would involve the FDFA's Human Security Division (now the Peace and Human Rights Division, PHRD) in preparing the dispatch on Switzerland's international cooperation.


The SDC also set itself the target of doubling the number of partnerships with private sector actors. Government development cooperation alone is not enough to achieve the ambitious goals of the 2030 Agenda.

The private sector has a key role to play in boosting economic activity. In the poorest countries, nine out of ten jobs are created in the private sector. Moreover, its innovation, expertise and resources make a vital contribution. The SDC is therefore stepping up its partnerships with the private sector, for example by working with social enterprises, impact investors and grant-making foundations.

The development efforts of the USA and the Soviet Union are characterised by self-interested policies and linked to geostrategic considerations. Anti-communism and anti-capitalism are important drivers of bilateral engagement, and both great powers concentrate their support on strategically important and resource-rich areas.

The 'self-help assistance' ethos, which has shaped Swiss development cooperation to the present day, was established in this decade. The Service for Technical Cooperation summed it up in a 1968 flyer: "If you give the hungry a fish, they'll have food for a day. If you teach them how to fish, they'll have enough for the rest of their lives."

In the 1980s, the economic situation of poor countries worsened. After the recession and oil crisis of the 1970s, many developing countries were forced to take out loans on the international financial market. When interest rates for the US dollar rose to 20% in the 1980s, the debt burden became virtually unsustainable. This had dire consequences, with the amounts used to pay off debts often exceeding the inflow of development funds.

Developing countries in the South benefited very little from the end of the Cold War. The hope that the world's superpowers would use some of the money previously spent on nuclear armament for development cooperation failed to materialise. The United States, in particular, scaled back its aid in Africa, Latin America and Asia, where it had previously been present for reasons of power politics.

"We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty." With this voluntary commitment at the 55th General Assembly of the United Nations in September 2000, the representatives of UN member states agreed on a series of measures to halve poverty in the world by 2015. Known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), they were:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

The COVID-19 crisis hit developing countries particularly hard. Their health systems are often weak, many people do not have a regular income, and welfare systems are not robust enough to guarantee a decent standard of living.

Switzerland responded quickly and flexibly to this situation. To combat the spread of the coronavirus in developing countries, it adapted its ongoing projects and programmes and took effective action to mitigate the health, economic, political and social impacts of COVID-19 in these countries. Switzerland also supplied medical protective equipment, tests and ventilators to a number of countries, and supported the local production of disinfectants, among other things.

In the late 1950s, it became apparent that the Confederation wished to expand bilateral technical assistance. Switzerland now also began working with private development organisations. The first charity to receive financial support from the Confederation was the Swiss Overseas Relief Agency (SHAG), which is now called Helvetas.

In the 1970s, environmental issues became an increasingly important part of development cooperation worldwide. However, this trend was not confined to development cooperation. The same decade saw environmental protection become a central domestic policy issue in Switzerland. Nuclear power, forest dieback and the destruction of the rainforest and other natural habitats were major talking points. But public debate on these issues was not limited to Switzerland. As a global phenomenon, it paved the way for the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1972.

In the 1980s, dealing with the debt crisis triggered by the global recession and the 1973 oil shock became the focus of international development cooperation. The decade was shaped by neoliberal ideas about development strategy, as exemplified by the structural adjustment programmes. These required developing countries to introduce comprehensive economic reforms aimed at bolstering economic growth in order to continue receiving support. This approach turned out to be ineffective and met with criticism – especially from the UN – because the structural adjustment programmes left out social, environmental and cultural aspects.

Since 1983, the number of armed conflicts and natural disasters in the world has increased dramatically. The United Nations Security Council authorised the deployment of more UN peacekeeping missions in the first half of the 1990s than in the previous 45 years. This had knock-on effects for Switzerland's humanitarian aid, which was now increasingly present in conflict and war zones in order to protect forcibly displaced people.

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness formulates five fundamental principles, 12 indicators and 21 targets. Recipient countries set their own poverty reduction strategies and manage external aid themselves (principle of ownership). Donors align behind the strategies of partner countries and use these countries' systems for public financial management and procurement (alignment). They coordinate their interventions and implement common arrangements (harmonisation). Donors and recipient countries focus on results and measure the impact of aid on development (managing for results). They are jointly responsible for achieving the agreed goals and are accountable to each other (mutual accountability).

In 2015, the international community took stock of the MDGs. Considerable progress had been made in many areas. For example, according to the UN, the number of children not attending school fell from 100 million in 2000 to 57 million in 2015. Also, the proportion of people in developing countries surviving on less than USD 1.25 a day (the definition of extreme poverty) dropped from 47% to 14% between 1990 and 2015. Even so, poverty remained a problem, with around 2 billion people worldwide still having to get by on less than USD 2 a day.
 
So there is still a need for international cooperation. In September 2015, UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda: with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it represents a milestone in global sustainable development. Switzerland played a key role in the development and negotiation process. The 2030 Agenda incorporates all three dimensions of sustainability – economic, social and environmental – and has universal applicability. This means that all countries and their public, civil society and private partners contribute to achieving the goals.

The UN development agencies too were gearing their work towards the needs of the poorest in the 1970s. In the 1974 Cocoyoc Declaration, a UN group of experts stated that the goal and purpose of development needed to be redefined. Development cooperation should focus on people's basic needs such as food, shelter, health and education. Any other approach simply widened the gap between the affluent minority and the poorest population groups in a developing country.

In response to destruction of the environment and a growing realisation that the earth's resources are finite, the UN commissioned a report in 1983 in which the concept of sustainability was described for the first time. "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The Brundtland Report called on the international community to find a balance between economic development, social development and environmental protection. This idea was to have an unparalleled influence on development cooperation in the years that followed.

Until the 1990s, development was mostly understood in economic terms and measured using economic indicators. In 1994, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) introduced the broader concept of 'human development'. This defines development as the degree of freedom a person has to exercise opportunities and develop their abilities. In developing countries, however, the opportunities are severely limited owing to factors such as insufficient scope for income generation, a lack of political rights, or violence. According to the human development concept, broad-based poverty reduction can only be achieved by giving poor people access to productive, reasonably paid and socially acceptable employment.

Many people living in poverty do not have access to the financial services that could enable them to escape the spiral of poverty. A small loan, or microcredit, has the potential to release people from the vicious cycle of poverty. A smallholder, for example, can use the money to buy seeds, sustainably increase production, repay the loan and so take a step towards greater prosperity. To highlight the benefits of such microfinance, the UN declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit. "Sustainable access to microfinance helps alleviate poverty by generating income, creating jobs, allowing children to go to school, enabling families to obtain health care, and empowering people to make the choices that best serve their needs," declared the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in support of the initiative.

As in other areas, digitalisation and new technologies offer enormous opportunities for humanitarian aid and sustainable development. But they also entail risks, linked for example to the processing of vast amounts of data, surveillance, and the dissemination of fake news. At the 50th World Economic Forum in Davos, the FDFA showcased a number of innovative SDC projects. Tech4Good is about fostering close cooperation between the scientific community, private sector and public development actors – including the SDC – in order to harness the full potential of new technologies for poverty reduction.

Technologies co-developed in Switzerland are improving the living conditions of millions of people in areas such as agricultural technology, healthcare, disaster resilience and access to resources. This is made possible by the innovative research conducted at ETH Zurich and EPFL as well as by international Swiss start-ups and Swiss companies with global operations. Tech4Good's commitment is making a significant contribution to achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Swiss development cooperation came under heavy attack in the early 1970s, and there were calls for it to be given a solid foundation and clear direction. The 1976 Act on International Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid set out the strategic direction at both the bilateral and multilateral levels, specifying the following priorities:

• Focus on poorer developing countries, regions and people
• Foster development in rural areas
• Improve food security through agricultural production
• Promote crafts and trades and local small-scale industry
• Create jobs in developing countries
• Establish and maintain environmental and demographic balance

The legislation also defined the action areas for humanitarian aid: its aim should be to save lives and alleviate suffering through preventive and emergency aid measures in the event of natural disasters and armed conflicts.

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda – one of Switzerland's priority countries – came as a shock and a wake-up call for Swiss development cooperation. Until then, development cooperation had often been conceived purely in terms of technical assistance, with engineers or doctors providing support irrespective of political issues. Since the Rwandan genocide, analysis of the political context has been a crucial part of programme planning.

A large gathering of government representatives took place in New York in September 2010 to assess progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs):

Progress had been made, but a number of activities were still inadequate for meeting the MDGs. Switzerland, which had signed up to the goals, produced its own report in which it identified some weaknesses of the MDGs. For example, too much emphasis was placed on the symptoms of poverty and not enough on the root causes, including a lack of economic development opportunities.

In 1979, Foreign Minister Pierre Aubert took stock of the formative events that had shaped the direction of Switzerland's international cooperation over the previous ten years. The global recession and oil crisis of 1973 had triggered fresh debate, as a new generation of development policymakers questioned the benefits of traditional development cooperation, blaming underdevelopment on the actions of industrialised nations. Swiss private sector actors got caught in the crossfire, including Nestlé for the way it sold infant formula in developing countries and the banks that made profits at the expense of the poorest. Swiss development cooperation continued to evolve, and from 1976 operated on a legal basis underpinned by domestic policy.

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 at the third Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 3) in Kyoto. Under the protocol, the state parties committed to reduce their emissions of the six most important greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), to at least 5% below 1990 levels in the period 2008–12.

Partnerships with the private sector are key to the effective implementation of international cooperation. One example of this is the collaboration, launched in 1999, between the SDC and the Geneva-based Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). The combination of MMV's medical know-how and the SDC's development expertise facilitated research into an inexpensive anti-malarial drug, which has so far been used over 250 million times in over 50 countries.